More Cookie Pictures

Cookies

Okay, I know I promised to post these pictures a long time ago, but better late than never. Seeing as how I finished this class over three weeks ago, let's see if I can remember what I did. :) On the far left are the ever so wonderful chocolate chip cookies, in the middle is the ever so unappetizing (in my opinion) brysselkex cookies, and last but not least my all time favorite pistachio macaroons. This isn't the greatest picture, but you get the point. Now I'm off to see what else I can bore you guys with.

Cookie Hell

For our first week in the kitchen we are making nothing but chocolate chip cookies, pistachio macaroons, and brysslekex cookies. You would think that it all sounds so simple, but it is so hard. We are not allowed to use the mixers so we have to mix everything by hand, and if any of you know what a macaroon is you know that it starts out with a meringue. Ugh! This took some elbow grease to get done. I am now freakishly strong in one are. :) I can say that on Friday my cookies turned out perfect, which is a relief since they were crap at the first of the week. I got a perfect score on all my cookies. I will post a pic of them later.

Sugar Sculpting

So, after a week of cookie hell I was excited to go to a sugar sculpting workshop on Saturday. This was my first time ever doing anything like this, so please be kind. We learned how to make a fish by blowing air into hot sugar, and how to make a ribbon shape for the tail. We also learned several other techniques, but I will spare you the boring details. I can tell you that the sugar was extremely hot, so hot that I burned blisters on my hand while I was wearing three layers of gloves. I also burnt the tip of my rubber glove off, and then the instructor burnt another tip of my glove off with a blow torch, and caught my cardboard on fire. It was all totally worth it though. I can't wait until I am able to do more of these kinds of sculptures, but I have to wait until I am further along in school. Anyway, I was just so darn proud that I had to show off my work. I hope you all enjoy. I will try to post more later.

Experimental Cuisine

Okay, I am so excited about what I learned at school this week. I have a rather strange love of chemistry, and learned that I can actually include chemistry in my baking. First, I went to a workshop by one of my chef instructors about experimental cuisine. I was not completely sure what to expect, but when I got there Oh My Goodness I was so excited. I learned about using these really cool additives, some natural, some not so natural, in food. I won't go into everything we learned, because this blog would be way too long. I will just touch on some of the pictures I took at the workshop.
The first one is of all of the cool ingredients he used to make some of the stuff he showed us, such as Poblano Chili Caviar, Peanut butter powder and concord foam.

Here are all of the books that I hope to one day own. They are all so amazing and about how experimental cuisine is being used.

This is my instructor, Chef Reynolds preparing the Chili Caviar. I know it sounds gross, but it is not really caviar. It is actually a mix of poblano peppers, cilantro, and garlic blended into a liquid and made into little beads that resemble caviar. Believe me it was so Yummy.

Here is what the Chili Caviar looks like. They look almost like little peas. Chef has said that this technique can be used with almost any liquid. I am so excited to start testing this out. Well, that is all I have for now, but hopefully I will be posting more soon.

My Education

Okay, I know I promised to let you all in on what I am going to school to study. Well, I have always had a passion for baking so I decided that I would apply at Le Cordon Bleu. I was accepted and am now attending every M-F from 12:30 p.m to 5:30 p.m. I should be able to graduate in early November. I hopefully then will be a certified Pastry Chef. I will give more details later, but I must rush off to school now seeing as how it is about an hour drive depending on traffic.

Oh yeah, Beth G. if you are reading this I might need your help in pronouncing some of the french terms. I have to know just about every ingredients french name. My head is swimming. :)

Christmas 2007

For those of you that I did not get a Christmas card to I apologize. This is the picture we decided to use and honestly I did everything so last minute that I'm suprised anyone got a card. Just when I was about to give up on the Christmas card picture and put down the camera, because the girls were not cooperating, BAM a perfect picture. That is what I get for trying to pose them. I should always just let them do whatever comes natural to them, and if you can't tell by the picture Claire was not in the least bit happy that Madeline decided to lay her head in her lap. :)

Anyway, enough about the Christmas card. I just wanted to say that this years Christmas had its great times and it's not so great times. The not so great times are due to my OCD and trying to make everything perfect and everyone happy. (Note to self: You can't make everyone happy. It's impossible.) I don't want to go into all of the stuff that went wrong and all of the crying I did, because as I sat here today I realized just how blessed this family is. We have way more than most. I am blessed to have my two beautiful healthy little girls, a loving husband (even tho I could kill him sometimes :)), a wonderful home, two cars that work, and being able to finish my education starting in January. I look at all of the things we received for Christmas and can't help but feel a bit guilty seeing as how we have more than most. I am not saying we are wealthy and don't live pay check to pay check. I mean we are wealthy in our health and happiness. I just feel guilty in getting all of the latest and greatest gadgets. The gadgets I received this year were an iphone, ishuffle, and a programmable crock pot. Michael's gadgets consist of an iphone, ipod, and an XBox 360. The girls gadget is the Nintendo Wii. I guess living with a husband whose work is computers and things this should be normal in this house. I just feel a wee bit of guilt.

I am happy that the girls got the Wii, because believe it or not it is teaching them a valuable lesson in being good sports. I didn't realize what sore loosers they were. They are getting better about saying, "It's okay, good game." So maybe this will be a good thing for them. They also got a whole mess of Webkinz. For those of you that don't know what a Webkin is, it is a stuffed animal you buy that comes with a secret passcode so you can play with your animal on the computer. It really is a very cute idea and the girls love taking care of them. We have their Mamaw to thank for the Webkinz. Their Granny and Pappy got them the cutest cash registers that actually work. They also sent them money to practice with the cash register. It is a great learning tool on how we have to pay for our groceries and such, and also teaches them about how to pay and receive cash back. They love it. From Grandaddy and Ms. Steph they received a whole bunch of clothes and a swing set. Which is awesome! We needed an outside toy. Last but not least from Santa they received a bunch of baby doll stuff and Barbie stuff. So I guess you can say that my children racked up this year. I hope they don't expect this every year. ;)

I could go on and on about our Christmas, but I will not bore you with all of the other little things.

I will be posting another blog some time soon about me furthering my education for those of you that don't know what I am talking about.

I love you all and hope that you had a blessed Christmas like we did this year. God has been smiling down on us lately.